Artistic swimming – colloquially recognized as synchronised swimming – is one of the most aesthetically-pleasing sports at the Olympics. It is a sport that allows the athletes to perform choreographed routines, on which they’re scored. At Paris Olympics 2024, the USA artistic swimming team put on a show, swimming to the tune of legendary American singer and dancer Michael Jackson’s iconic song ‘Smooth Criminal’. The video of the USA team performing to the song at sport’s grandest stage has gone viral on social media.

The USA team even performed an underwater moonwalk as they paid tribute to Michael Jackson.

Watch: Team USA perform an underwater moonwalk to Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ in artistic swimming

This was the highlight of the day for me.

USA #ArtisticSwimming team with a underwater moonwalk in a tribute to Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal…

Instant iconic! #Olympics pic.twitter.com/VwQ2mZbaYd

— Kalyani Mangale (@MangaleKalyani) August 6, 2024

Team USA’s stunning performance took them to a fourth-place finish in the technical routine team event at Paris 2024. USA finished on 282.7567 points, more than 30 points short of eventual first-place China. Spain and Japan finished second and third, respectively.

China are the dominant nation in the World Aquatics rankings, holding top spot in many categories.

What is artistic swimming?

The sport requires athletes to perform acrobatics in water, tuning their moves to a song. As per usatoday.com, athletes are scored based on their execution, synchronisation, degree of difficulty, music, and choreography.

Traditionally, it has been a sport for women. However, in 2015, World Aquatics introduced duet events, allowing one male swimmer to perform per duet event.

Artistic swimming has been an Olympics sport till 2017. Duet and team events are most common, with the women’s duet and the mixed team events taking place in Paris 2024. Russia have been a dominant force in recent Olympics history in the sport, winning both medals in each of the last six Olympic Games.

The technical routine team event will be followed by the free routine event. Both technical and free routine will be performed in a team event and then in a women’s event.